POP star PJ Proby “dropped dead” from drinking in 1992 and going on stage was part of his medical treatment, a jury has been told.

Proby, appearing at Worcester Crown Court under his real name of James Marcus Smith, told a benefits fraud investigator he was also suffering from illnesses including asthma and a separated shoulder.

He said he had “dropped dead” from alcohol and at one point he had had to go to the JobCentre to see if he was fit for work.

He carried on singing on stage because it was regarded as therapy for his depression.

The 73-year-old of Twyford, near Evesham, denies nine charges of benefit fraud totalling £47,000 from 2001 to 2008.

He is alleged to have carried on claiming income support, pension credit, housing benefit and council tax benefit while still getting royalties and income from touring with other Sixties acts including the Troggs, the Searchers and Herman’s Hermits.

Proby told Mrs Brenda Ranford, who led the investigation from March 2006 until she left the Department of Work and Pensions in September 2008 in which he told her that when he was touring he would not get cheques for two or three months.

He also said that the money he earned from touring would go on expenses.

She told the court it was “irrelevant” why Proby was working because if he had earned income then it should have been declared because otherwise it could lead to an overpayment.

Mrs Ranford said she had taken the unusual step of involving the police to call at Proby’s home because she feared he could flee the country.

She said he was an American citizen who had no ties to the community and lived in a rented cottage but Mr David Gottlieb, defending Proby, said he had lived in the UK since 1964.

The trial continues.